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John Russell / Australia 1858–1930 / La Pointe de Morestil par mer calme (Calm Sea at Morestil Point) 1901 / Oil on canvas / 61 x 95cm / Gift of Lady Trout 1987 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art
John RussellLa Pointe de Morestil par mer calme (Calm sea at Morestil Point) 1901
Not Currently on Display
La Pointe de Morestil par mer calme (Calm sea at Morestil Point) 1901 is one of many seascapes that John Russell painted on the storm-tossed island of Belle-Île off the coast of north-western France.
Inspired by French impressionist painters, Russell declared to a fellow Australian artist that he now felt himself part of ‘a mighty revolution in art’ because Impressionism was understood in France as finished work in which the ‘purity of colour and intention is kept’.
In order to capture his ‘impressions’ of the changing moods of the landscape, Russell used dabs of pure colours to paint different weather conditions and times of the day.
Sydney-born John Russell was destined to join his family’s engineering firm, but at 18 he became preoccupied by art. Having gained financial independence on the death of his father, Russell travelled to London in 1881 to study painting. In 1885, as a student in Paris, he worked with and befriended several important European artists, including Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Auguste Rodin and Vincent Van Gogh.
A year later, Russell and his wife settled on Belle-Île, an island off the coast of Brittany, where he built a house in which he hosted many artist friends. Here, Russell also met and developed a close friendship with artist Claude Monet, who played a significant part in his artistic development. Side-by-side, the pair painted numerous landscapes of the dramatic coastline.
Following his wife’s death in 1908, Russell destroyed many of his works and left Belle-Île to travel extensively in Europe, painting mainly watercolours. Russell returned to Australia in 1921, where he painted very little until his death.
Discussion Questions
1. Look carefully at the painting. How has the artist used colour and brush strokes to show how he feels about this place? What kind of place do you think it is?
2. Look carefully at Russell’s use of pure colours. Discuss how Russell has utilised the relative temperature of colours (warm versus cool) to suggest the three-dimensional form of the rocks. Consider also his use of tints (colours lightened with white paint).
Classroom Activities
1. Choose a place in your school to observe closely and draw what you see. How does this place make you feel? Choose colours to reflect this feeling in your picture and share with a classmate.
2. Set up a simple still life and do a quick painted sketch of the objects using saturated colour to suggest shadows and highlights. Do not use black paint to darken your shadows: instead, use the natural lightness and darkness of the pure colours from the colour wheel (colour value) as well as colour temperature, to suggest the highlights and shadows of the forms.